Second Edition published 2016

Edited by Stephen Strobel, Lewis Spitz and Stephen Marks

Published by CRC Press

ISBN 978-1-4822-2279-1

Price £63.99

https://www.crcpress.com/Great-Ormond-Street-Handbook-of-Paediatrics-Second-Edition/Strobel-Spitz-Marks/p/book/9781482222791

The title of a book can often convey what it is about and certainly within the title, “Great Ormond Street” brings instant brand awareness of a great institution which is well known both in the UK and abroad. Being associated with this outstanding hospital should help to provide trust in the contents of this book, and in my opinion this impressive book matches the high quality implied in the title. What may be confusing is the word “handbook” in the title because it is certainly more than this. It is a superb, well built and very handsome book, rich in content and illustrations which not only acts as a very good textbook but it is easy just to meander through the book and pick out interesting sections at leisure. It does not take long to read a specific section which is usually helpful, educational and relevant to clinical practice.

In fact, the production values of this book are excellent; it is beautifully produced with loads of illustrations such as pictures, tables and radiological images. The text is laid out in a logical format, regularly broken up into paragraphs in sections such as incidence, aetiology and diagnosis etc. In fact, this book is surprisingly comprehensive whilst maintaining the reader’s interest as a good read which is easy on the eye. It is also split up into disease sections with each disorder obtaining its own individual entry and so if you want to look up a topic then assuming it is there, a quick read can top up the neurones.

However, this book is so well put together that it is very tempting to simply open it up and read it for the sake of interest, education and curiosity. It is a pleasure to read sections at random and that is a tribute to what an excellent book this is. Sure it is not cheap book but it ticks a lot of boxes, an excellent textbook, well illustrated, readable and relevant to many readers. This could include GPs, their registrars, hospital doctors and community paediatricians. It’s also up to date being published this year-if you are interested in a good, general all round paediatric book which is of UK origin, then it is worth checking this out.

Dr Harry Brown

September 2016